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The invention presented here involves a visual balancing device, added onto or integrated into mobile objects, spectacle lenses, spectacle frames, or other supports, in order to provide for the users at least one reference point linked to gravity in their peripheral field of vision, and thus to prevent any inconvenience (loss of attention and nausea, general motion sickness) associated, in particular, with divergent perceptions of balance and sight.
The invention presented here is also aimed at numerous applications of the device in scientific, medical, comfort, leisure, or professional and, in particular, military fields.
A difference in perception between sight and balance (the inner ear) occurs when the individual is placed in a moving environment without visually perceiving this movement, and vice-versa. In fact, the eye perceives a stable environment inside of a moving object, for example, inside a cabin of a ship that is moving, whereas the inner ear perceives the opposite information. It feels the ship""s movement. This contradiction or difference in perception is the cause of motion sickness (sea sickness, air sickness, car sickness, etc.), also called kinetosis.
Several anti-kinetosis devices are currently available on the market, some of which are the object of patent applications. In the patent number WO 96/25685, for example, it is proposed, in order to act against kinetosis, to wear glasses that are particular in that they contain, on or in their lenses, an artificial horizon made up of a line visible to the user, held in a permanent horizontal position regardless of the lateral movements of the glasses or the of the head of the user. This patent also mentions, as prior art, in particular, the documents U.S. Pat. No. 5,355,182, WO 91/00541, which reveal more or less complex devices that have the major disadvantage, just like the object of the document WO 96/25685, of presenting an artificial horizon line in the center of the individual""s field of vision (location of fine perception, and image analysis). This artificial horizon line disrupts the visual acuteness of the user. This disruption does not encourage the systematic wearing of these glasses and moreover, their wearing as a preventive measure. This disruption is eliminated in the system described in the document EP 0,603,092 which allows the display of an artificial horizon in a zone called the xe2x80x9cperipheral visionxe2x80x9d in order to act against the spatial disorientations of pilots. This complex device mounted on the helmets of pilots is designed for very specific applications, in a manner so that it can not be permanently worn by all persons, and it causes other disadvantages that add to the ones of the current devices mentioned above.
The devices currently available foray persons, due to the fact of their complexity, are expensive, fragile, and possibly heavy (presence of several lenses or pistons at the level of the frames, etc.) and unaesthetic. They do not hold up well under the sizeable variations of temperature and pressure as well as under poor treatment by the user.
In addition, in these devices, the mobility of the artificial horizon line present in the individual""s central field of vision is obtained solely by axial rotation, only the lateral swinging movements to the left or to the right (swaying) of the head or of the moving object are manifested in a more or less sizeable slope of this artificial horizon line inside the glasses without the anterior-posterior movements (pitching) movements, which correspond in particular to the backwards and forwards swinging or up and down swinging of the head, for example.
The purpose of the present invention is to correct the disadvantages of the anti-kinetosis devices mentioned above.
According to the invention, this purpose is achieved by a visual balancing device that is added on or integrated to any support that must be positioned in the individual""s peripheral field of vision, noteworthy in that it is made of a tube or pipe or any other container having the same principle closed on itself, impermeable, transparent or translucent, having a deflection or not, in which at least two substances are contained which are in different states and/or masses (for example, the one being in liquid form and the other in solid form (stained water and air)), such that the interfaces between these substances mark visible reference points.
These reference points steady the user""s sight in agreement with the levels of the liquid of the inner ear. The visual balancing device is integrated or fixed to any support or another device, in a manner such that at least one of these reference points is positioned in the peripheral field of vision of one or both eyes of the user or even of the lenses of photographic devices, cameras, computer screens, or magnifying optical systems.
This positioning is made possible by any known mechanism in itself, and particularly by integrating or fixing this device to the inside or the outside of frames of glasses (with or without lenses), as well as inside or outside at least one of the lenses of the glasses, or diving masks, for example, or lenses of photographic devices, cameras, or magnifying optical systems, or various screens.
Due to the peripheral localization of the reference points or balances of the device, relative to the central field of vision, the individual is not disturbed in his perception of the central image when he uses the device.
In addition, the role of the peripheral field of vision and the functioning mode of the inner ear are recalled for purposes of supplemental information. On the one hand, the peripheral vision is the location surrounding the central image (the xe2x80x9cdesiredxe2x80x9d image), the warning area of the central field of vision; on the other hand, the method of locating by the levels of the liquid in the preferred embodiment functions in manner that is fundamentally comparable to that of the inner ear; and thus, the use of the peripheral field of vision and locating by levels have all the ergonomic advantages of being easy to adapt.
In fact, the variation of the level of the substances contained in the device according to the invention (and thus of their interfaces) follows the movement of the head or of the moving object and thus corresponds to the variation of the levels of the liquid of the inner ear. The eye""s perception is steadied at all times by these reference points or interfaces as in the inner ear. With the positioning of this balancing device around or on the side of at least one eye, the perception differential is reduced by the arrangement at the best place in the field of vision, with the same type of information as that of the inner ear.
According to a preferred adaptation of the device of the invention, the tube closed on itself assumes the general shape of a ring or of a torus inserted or integrated into a lens or a frame with or without a lens, or even affixed by gluing or xe2x80x9cclippingxe2x80x9d, for example.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, at least one of the two substances that it contains is liquid in such a way that its functioning is fundamentally comparable to that of the inner ear.
According to the most simple embodiment of the device of the invention, the tube is filled with a preferably stained liquid, and contains, as a second substance, an air bubble, or other gas, or simply a ball with or without liquid. The ball or the bubble moves as a function of the swaying movements.
According to another embodiment of the device according to the invention, various substances having different appearances, not miscible among themselves, are contained in the tube that is closed onto itself. The reference points are made by the visible interfaces of these substances.
The assembly of the device for visual balancing can be entirely placed either above one or both eyes, for example, in a visor of a hat, or below or even on the side of the eyes, in a blinder, for example. A part of the device can be concealed allowing a single balance point to appear, in order to have the advantage of easier locating.
According to an advantageous adaptation of the device of the invention, the tube that is closed on itself having a general shape of a hollow torus, has, in addition, a communicating deflection, arranged to form an angle relative to the initial plane (plane containing the base unit, preferably in a ring, of the visual balancing device according to the invention). This deflection makes it possible to arrange a reference point in the third dimension. In fact, the interface(s) present in this modification or deflection thus move(s) as a supplement according to the xe2x80x9canterior-posteriorxe2x80x9d movements or pitching of the individual""s head or of the moving object.
According to another embodiment of the device of the invention, the rotating image is made in the general form of a weighted ring turning in another ring.
According to another embodiment of the device of the invention, the considerably enlarged mobile image is comprised of one or more columns connected to each other in the inside space of the moving object and containing various substances whose interfaces provide the visual reference points.
Due to the simplicity of the design of the device of the invention, its manufacturing cost is reduced. It is accessible to all persons.